advice for people new and old to vanilla wow.

[Xecks]

i played back in the day and know alot about what to do and what not to do in wow. i figured i would help if ya want it.

1) find a guild.
playing in a guild will allow you to successfully play feral/ret/shadow. if the guild doesnt understand this quit guild and find another who does. it also serves as a group finder and social platform for you to take part in.

2) do some research .
putting in a little time will only help you be successful. this is a must if you raid. learning mechanics about the game will leave you less clueless and will help you when you do pug to not do a faux pas.

3)be helpful to those around you.
if you are a priest and see someone struggling on a mob drop a fortitude and pop a few heals . youll make a friend for life sometimes.

4) keep a network of those who have treated you well or have rare enchants.
also keep track of assholes.

5) have fun.
dont keep doing something you dont enjoy . its not worth it in the long run.

[Storfan]

A guildleader/raidleader that allows a retridin in the main raids cannot be considered serious and the guild wont be successful in the long term.

[Mosotti]

A guildleader/raidleader that allows a retridin in the main raids cannot be considered serious and the guild wont be successful in the long term.

Actually with the experience the players have today, 20-25 people are enough to clear everything, leaving plenty of room for all kind of less viable specs...

[Nomads]

A guildleader/raidleader that allows a retridin in the main raids cannot be considered serious and the guild wont be successful in the long term.

Say that to my top 100 / best on sever guild.

You're clearly one of those mid-tier try-hards who played on an inconsequential server, who bought into all the "this spec is useless" bullshit that was peddled by these bad guilds who didn't understand the game well enough to actually be competing in current progression.

[Storfan]

Actually with the experience the players have today, 20-25 people are enough to clear everything, leaving plenty of room for all kind of less viable specs...

MC definitely, BWL perhaps. AQ40 and Naxx absolutely not.

Say that to my top 100 / best on sever guild.

You're clearly one of those mid-tier try-hards who played on an inconsequential server, who bought into all the "this spec is useless" bullshit that was peddled by these bad guilds who didn't understand the game well enough to actually be competing in current progression.

A perfectly geared Naxx-bis retridin wont compete with a BWL geared rogue or fury warrior.

[taliey]

Have fun...?

[Vaelorian]

A guildleader/raidleader that allows a retridin in the main raids cannot be considered serious and the guild wont be successful in the long term.

Yeah well it depends does it not? I mean sure dpswise you have a point (unless you have people doing even less damage then the socalled retridin). I am saying this because there was a time in Vanilla where you needed to spec deep into retribution (last talent is I recall correctly). Do you consider this a retridin?

[Noxina]

1.
While I do agree on the find a guild part, ret/feral was dogshit before they got any good gear (well atleast ret, no experience with feral, can't even remember if I saw any feral druids back in Vanilla). In other words - the guild had to funnel gear into a spec that was performing worse than any other dps spec, in hopes he would do ok later. Easier to just put him on heal/buffing duty.

2.
What mechanics? The challenge back in Vanilla was really to gather enough people, and have all those 40 man show up on time so you could progress, and have those 40 to actually bother enough to go and farm resistance gear. Mechanics wasn't really much of an issue, and wont be now when people got several years of MMO experience. The only thing holding people back this time around will be gear checks.

3.
Agree on this part, but will most likely not bother doing it personally. Hoping to get ahead of the curve in the leveling progression so I don't have to stand in line for mob kills.

4.
In other words - use the friend and ignore list. I remember I even had an excell document of known trolls/ninja looters back in Vanilla, so I knew what pugs to stay away from (leaders that was known to ninja loot items they wanted without having a /roll on it) and who to not invite/when to leave the pug if someone got invited.

5.
In Vanilla you kinda had to do stuff you didn't really enjoy to get to the parts you would enjoy. Like for instance, if you really love PvP, settle in for hours upon hours of gold farming inbetween (or prepare your wallet), as PvP pieces cost gold and not honor. Same thing for PvE, prepare to go and farm lower instances for resistance gear etc.

[owbu]

A guildleader/raidleader that allows a retridin in the main raids cannot be considered serious and the guild wont be successful in the long term.

6) Avoid people, who say stuff like this, at all cost. Not only do they make the game much harder, because getting them to shut up about why you cant pull the boss yet, because they read somewhere that something you are doing might not be optimal or effcient enough yet, usually takes longer than actually killing the boss, they also suck all the fun out of the game and are directly responsible for todays "every spec is just the same spec.

Until Naxx...at that point you probably need to start listening to them

[Storfan]

6) Avoid people, who say stuff like this, at all cost. Not only do they make the game much harder, because getting them to shut up about why you cant pull the boss yet, because they read somewhere that something you are doing might not be optimal or effcient enough yet, usually takes longer than actually killing the boss, they also suck all the fun out of the game and are directly responsible for todays "every spec is just the same spec.

Until Naxx...at that point you probably need to start listening to them

That is my definition of successful. Late AQ40 and Naxx. Some bosses are hard DPS-checks that you wont get past if you're using sub-par hybrid hurr-durr DPS:ers like Retridins, Catdruids, enhancement shamans.

[Charge me Doctor]

That is my definition of successful. Late AQ40 and Naxx. Some bosses are hard DPS-checks that you wont get past if you're using sub-par hybrid hurr-durr DPS:ers like Retridins, Catdruids, enhancement shamans.

Naxx is basically TBC content, they've tested a lot of things they wanted to implement in TBC and naxx was giant leap in difficulty because of that. When you compare naxx mechanics to AQ40/20 and SSC it looks more similar to SSC than AQ40/20

[klaps_05]

Actually with the experience the players have today, 20-25 people are enough to clear everything, leaving plenty of room for all kind of less viable specs...

Certainly true, however the raid size is 40. You say you can easily clear it with 20-25? Imagine if you had all 40 playing tier 1 specs. As there will probably be more or less 1 realm per game mode this means a big supply of tier 1 classes to choose from. While in vanilla most of us were clueless, if you choose to carry people you are hindering yourself voluntarily.

Why do people continously pretend that a lot of PvE guilds with some ambition to be successful would not try to min/max and optimize? Not saying all will, but it aint 2004 anymore and the information available is everywhere 1 search away.

On topic:

1) Join a big guild because communities are awesome.
2) If you plan on raiding and getting past MC, do your research what classes are preferred based on either dps or utilities(races too)

Also, not sure who started this whole rumor that people were super helpful in vanilla in the random world - as someone who spent his time either raiding or world pvping, i have never seen or heard of someone doing that. Maybe its private servers culture, but it sure wasnt happening much in vanilla.

[owbu]

That is my definition of successful. Late AQ40 and Naxx. Some bosses are hard DPS-checks that you wont get past if you're using sub-par hybrid hurr-durr DPS:ers like Retridins, Catdruids, enhancement shamans.

This is also my personal experience, yeah
I assume these days my guild could get a bit further, but back in the day, our "off tank enchancer" got 1shotted by fankris worms and Cthun smashed our faces untill we gave up and waited for BC to come out.

[Nomads]

MC definitely, BWL perhaps. AQ40 and Naxx absolutely not.


A perfectly geared Naxx-bis retridin wont compete with a BWL geared rogue or fury warrior.

You don't bring them just for THEIR dps. Sit down, kid.

[Benomatic]

Cosmetics pets are not the same as hunter pets! They will not aid you in battle!

[Storfan]

You don't bring them just for THEIR dps. Sit down, kid.

I know you dont. You bring paladins and druids for their healing and raid utility in the form of buffs. A paladin or druid deep down retri or feral-tree bring less raid utility because they sacrifice important buffs that are improved further down their healing trees, in addition they simply produce less DPS.

What would you rather bring to a progress raid in AQ or Naxx?

4 holy paladins + 4 rogues

or

2 holy paladins + 2 retridins + 2 rogues?

Keep in mind that those 2 lacking healer slots has to be filled by another player/class instead.

I dont even know why we're discussing this.

[Zulatomten]

4 holy paladins + 4 rogues
or
2 holy paladins + 2 retridins + 4 rogues?

What openminded people acually do nowadays on private servers, while private servers arn't an accurate represntation of Classic05/06 but it's all we have to go on.
They can bring to the raid setup like 3x Holy Paladins, 1x Retribution Paladin + 4x Rogues.
While Retribution doesnt bring much utility to the table, the other discussed hybrid dps specs do bring something which weighs up some(not all) for their lower damage.

Like the crit buff from Moonkin & Feral Forms(and being a druid in general), Increased Shadow damage from Priest and Improved Windfury totem by Shaman

[bmjclark]

You don't bring them just for THEIR dps. Sit down, kid.

What do you bring a ret paladin for? Go look up the ret paladin talent tree, there's literally nothing in it that brings any kind of buff that holy can't bring.

[Dead Moose Fandango]

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh, never mind
Don't worry about the future
Floss
Don't waste your time on jealousy
Stretch
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life.
Get plenty of calcium
Be kind to your knees
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can

But always remember. Wear sunscreen.

[potis]

I know you dont. You bring paladins and druids for their healing and raid utility in the form of buffs. A paladin or druid deep down retri or feral-tree bring less raid utility because they sacrifice important buffs that are improved further down their healing trees, in addition they simply produce less DPS.

What would you rather bring to a progress raid in AQ or Naxx?

4 holy paladins + 4 rogues

or

2 holy paladins + 2 retridins + 2 rogues?

Keep in mind that those 2 lacking healer slots has to be filled by another player/class instead.

I dont even know why we're discussing this.

Logic and data doesnt work on that one, he is fun for a few posts but his zealotry and lack of knowledege because private server opinion make him boring at the end, dont waste your time.